High Court strikes down Juvenile LWOP for non-homicide cases!

This is welcome news for a Monday morning!! SCOTUSblog recaps the Graham v. Florida decision:

In Graham v. Florida (08-7412), the Court reverses and remands, in an opinion again by Justice Kennedy. The vote is 6-3, with Justice Thomas dissenting, joined by Justice Scalia and in part by Justice Alito. Justice Alito files a separate dissenting opinion for himself. Justice Stevens, joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor, concurs, even though all three join the majority opinion, and the Chief Justice concurs in the result alone.

• Holding: It is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile offender to life in prison without parole when the crime does not involve murder, given the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment.

Read the opinion here.

UPDATES:

Today's Talk of the Nation featured a discussion with Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project (and Kansas solicitor general Stephen McAllister) about the Graham holding, as well as the Court's decision about civil commitments for sexually dangerous inmates. Read the transcript or listen to the program here.

Also, read more Graham commentary from the Sentencing Law & Policy blog here.